Come On!

I followed a car to work this morning with a bumper sticker that read “I owe, I owe, so it’s off to work I go.” My first assessment was, “That’s about how it goes.” Then I started to think it was a grim way to look at the productive portion of our lives that require us to go somewhere to gain a paycheck in order to pay for the things we want. I may complain about my student loan company screwing me (which they did but that’s a-whole-nother topic), I may complain that my credit card bill is high, I may even complain about wedding expenses, but it’s not the payment’s fault. Besides I told myself and my readers I was going to try to complain less this year.

I’m the one who got into the mess in order to finish school and have a wedding. I was a stupid late teen and early twenties person who thought she was making all the right choices in life in order to fulfill her dreams. I admit I got carried away with buying groceries and books then forgetting about the payment at the end of the month. I admit I should have trusted the government more and went through them for all my student loans instead of going through a third party. However I’m the one, unfortunately with the help of my fiancé, who needs to buckle down, manage my finances better, and get myself out of debt.

The owner of car in front of me either made some bad financial decision or some company or one screwed him through a stupid mistake of his own more than likely. I will say some people are blindsided and can't help some of the situations their in, but for the most part it can be traced back to the person who owes. 

Then I saw him toss an almost full cigarette out the window. I was upset that he had so little respect for the environment despite the wet and cold it was displaying. After a brief moment, I wondered how much money it would save him if he 1) finished that whole cigarette, got his money’s worth, and deposited it in an ashtray outside work like all the buildings have around here and 2) if he didn’t smoke at all.

In the state of Colorado an average pack of cigarettes costs around $5.96. Now, I'm no math wiz but if he smokes five a day that’s a pack and three thirds a week. We're up to $10.43. For an entire year of him smoking at an even pace (there are some weeks that are more stressful and therefore he’s going to smoke more but let’s keep the math simpler) he has to spend $542.36 to get his fill. And that’s only if he smokes the entire cigarette every time. If, like my sis-in-law who quit before going to California, he smokes only half per time that’s half the cost ($271.18) but not if he’s tossing the other half out the window! Don’t get me started on his health bills.

If he were to give up that nasty habit he would save himself around two (on average) car payments or a little more than a mortgage payment per year, maybe more depending on that credit score. I wanted to stop and pick up that cigarette and follow him directly to his work place and say, “Hey, mister you dropped something!” But alas I didn’t. I myself was running behind. I am ashamed for not making a direct point. I’m not sure he would have absorbed the message in the first place. He didn’t even know where to turn for his workplace (it was another mile after he first put his turn signal on).

If you’re going to complain for all the world to see about having to go to work simply because you owe someone or some company don’t go around throwing money away. It looks bad.

I got the average pack price here you can check out how much your state is spending on average, too.

Where'd they all go?

So, for the past year and a half I’ve been trying to get to the gym more often. At first I was stupidly nervous about exercising in public, my fiancé got me Wii Fit. Then I didn’t feel I was qualified to exercise on my own, let alone in public. THEN I felt that if I was at home I was at home. I didn’t want to go anywhere.

December changed all that. I started to push myself more, to get dressed at work and head straight there, to explore the many options of equipment that the rec center offers, and to just do it – I apologize for the cliché.

Is this because I’m getting married in a strapless number in a matter of ¡129! days? Maybe. It is also in response to a condition I was diagnosed with last year. It practically demands I be healthy or fall into a pit of ugliness that I just don’t want to talk about this time around.

That being said, it never ceases to amaze me that hordes of people will resolve to get fit. They make a fist and swing their crooked arm to say they will have gumption this year beginning every 1^st of January. Yet by mid to late February that gumption is capital-g Gone. I understand that struggle. I swam and was in the marching/ orchestra band in high school (secondary school to you un-Americans). It was because of my timidness that I didn’t try out for the WVU band. Tryouts were/are capital-s Scary. I wanted to be in the Notables, the “glee club,” but I didn’t have enough guts to even tell someone to gain the confidence to even try. I haven’t been in a pool since my first apartment with my then-neighbor-now-best-friend. The goal was to take laps. That didn’t happen. There were a lot of kids there. That means I haven’t swam laps in an actual pool since 2004. O.O

Trying is hard. Trying in public, doubly so. But if all these people tried for three weeks, which by the crowds they do, in theory they would be hooked on going. When I go and really work at it I want to stay. When I leave my lungs actually feel twice as big – completely opposite what it was in high/ secondary school – and I feel I can take over the world, Pinky. The tiredness that occurs around 9 or 10 is capital-a Amazing. I look better and I want to eat better (unless it’s an indulgence day – which should be a healthy part of any diet). I want to be a better person, do more with my life, fill as much of my day as I can. I want to pick my flute back up and regain my expertise in that field, alongside gaining more. Research in this area has come up short and suggestions are implored.  

I want to swim, but again guts and scheduling conflicts. Who wants to get up at 5 to go swimming? ME! but, alas, I still punch my screaming alarm and sleep for another hour or so every day. Maybe one day I’ll get the confidence to be the weirdo, get up long before anyone in the house does, and go to the gym to swim or just get my exercising done for the day. I know I’ll be better for it. But until that day I sit a work waiting for that clock to strike 8 ½ hours after I waltz myself through the doors to leave and purposefully get tired.

If I have any advice for anyone – of which I am a well, just ask – it is to get a membership to your local recreation center. Mine is only 7 minutes driving time from the far reaches of our city/county and offers LOTS of programs. From cycling, yoga and tae bo classes to rock wall, swimming and plenty of equipment to satiate any level of exerciser.  They even have kiddie things to keep the little rug rats occupied so parents can have that ever precious “me time.” The prices are very fair and mine at least has payment options. This helps remind me every month that I need to make my $29 worth my while. Even if your local rec center isn’t up to par join anyway. It will help your community and that rec center get better.